To determine the predominant genotype of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) in suburban Shanghai Municipal Province, specimens were collected from the lesions of 95 outpatients clinically diagnosed with varicella or herpes zoster. Of these, 69 patients (72.6 %) were positive for VZV DNA. The 69 isolates were all genotyped as the genotype J1/clade 2. Based on sequencing of the 447 bp sequence in ORF22, 66 isolates were identified as genotype J/clade 2 strains and three were identified as type M2/clade 4 strains. To confirm the classification of these three strains, we determined the presence of 27 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and found that isolates 1270/1450 shared seven SNPs that differed from those of clade 2, in which three SNPs were unique to clade 3 and another three were unique to clade 4. Isolate 1456 had two markers of clade 4 that differed from clade 2. The phylogenetic tree showed that our isolates clustered primarily with clade 2 and that the three M2/J1 strains clustered between clades 2 and 4. It is likely that isolates 1270/1450/1446 may represent a new subclade of either clade 2 or 4, or some recombinant events. In addition, our isolates were WT strains. We also observed significant inter-strain variations.

Two supplementary tables are available with the online Supplementary Material.

BreuerJ., GroseC., NorbergP., TipplesG., SchmidD. S.. ( 2010;). A proposal for a common nomenclature for viral clades that form the species varicella-zoster virus: summary of VZV Nomenclature Meeting 2008, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, 24-25 July 2008. J Gen Virol91: 821––828 [CrossRef][PubMed].

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